Chapter 2: Quantification

Ensig:Chapter 2 is here! Since there’s no schedule for releases, I’ll just be playing it by ear — both for this work, and “I was a Sword when I Reincarnated!”.

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Well, the race I’m a part of and the fashion of Ariot don’t really matter for now. Looking around this area, the only thing that even remotely resembles life is a creepy tree over to the side. Mh. It even has growths that resemble faces.

How graveyard-esque of a world with the so-called “fantasy races”.

I’ll be able to get some basic information about myself and the world if I approach civilization, but if I’m from a despised/outcast race that lives only in graveyards that might become a bit troublesome. If that turns out to be the case, I wonder what I should do…

While I don’t mind living in solitary areas, having nothing to do but jump over gravestones and read Charon’s Book doesn’t seem like a very fulfilling life. Furthermore, I’d probably have to resort to eating bugs unless there’s some sort of graveyard-plantation nearby.

I don’t mind eating bugs either (so long as they’re prepared properly), but to eat just bugs? I’d rather not have to live a new life with such a fate.

Ah. But even these thoughts don’t really matter, currently. Finding civilization so easily is just wishful thinking, after all.

While Earth’s logic was to have graveyards scattered across cities for ease of access in the past, in more recent years cemeteries were moved further away from civilization due to health concerns, area constraints, and sometimes even government legislation. I don’t know the level of civilization on Ariot, but it’s quite possible that this graveyard is quite far away from any town or city, just like Earth. In such a case, I’ll probably end up just wandering around aimlessly, stranded and lost.

So, for now, I should do as Charon’s Book recommended and get a way of viewing my Status rather than worrying about civilization.

Because I’ve read the book far before his prediction (or so I guess), I can assume that gaining such a Skill now would be better than later. And, if I can’t get a Status viewing Skill, I’ll just go look around and try again later. Mental exercise and breathers. Mh. That’s a good enough plan for now.

Thinking such, I sit down on top of my newly made Cloak+Grimoire seat. It isn’t exactly a lavish chair complete with heated cushions, but it’s of similar size to a tall cushion and it’ll keep my clothing from getting dirtier than they already are, so it’ll do. Settling myself in place, I close my eyes and start concentrating.

On Earth, it would have been quite hard to concentrate given the surrounding noise, lights, and even wandering thoughts. Here in the Graveyard, however… I find an odd sense of tranquility.

The air is slightly damp, and it has a temperature that would make one shiver slightly until they got used to it. Furthermore, the mist blocks out visibility of the sky making the surroundings quite dim.

For such a place to feel so serene… Mh. It doesn’t matter. It’s convenient this way.

Concentrate. Think. Feel.

Searching within myself, I move about within my ego. After a while I feel an odd sensation.

It’s a similar feeling one would get if a slightly-mischievous acquaintance were to slide their finger just a hair’s breadth away from their skin along the length of the back — the kind of feeling that would result in a “Gueeee” noise from anyone not expecting it.

But I was expecting it, so not a single sound escapes.

While experiencing such a feeling I “feel” something. Well, even though I say “feel”, it’s more like I “got the sensation that something is there”, and more than one “something”, it would be a “plurality of somethings”.

These are likely the values of the Stats, Levels, maybe Titles, and what I can only imagine are Skills or possibly Spells… It’s far too Vague to be sure. If I had to paint a picture of what these “things” look like… It would be a jumble of clouds. Differently colored, unorganized, constantly mixing clouds.

Now I understand why Charon wrote “rough values”.

Crossing my left leg over my right, I stretch out my arms and roll my neck. If I’m going to make sense of this mess, it’s going to take a while. Making sure that my body is in good condition for sitting is necessary.

Now. Let’s begin.

Reaching out in my mind, I grasp at the “feelings” — the odd cloud-like things within the depths of my psyche — and compress them by moving them inwards from all sides. Once they’re compressed and “easy to manage” I “refine” them. Which is to say, I painstakingly reach into each individual “cloud” and pull out the separate “colors” in “strands”.

Looking only at the number of strands I move under the assumption that each “strand” is equal to “1 unit” — as for the mystery of that unit’s identity, I’ll leave it for later.

After extraction is complete, I organize the clouds by color, and then proceed to compress them once again. Some of the clouds were connected by impossible-to-manipulate, almost invisible “lines”. Others had said lines connected deep into the void of my psyche, so I organized the clouds once again based off of the directions of the lines to the best of my ability.

◇◆◇

Congratulations!
You have acquired the Unknown Semi-Passive Ability:
「Quantitative Menu」

With such a message appearing under my eyelids, I open my eyes looking down at my makeshift chair. At some point, my head had drooped just above my knees, so I can feel my back bend back into shape as I give it a quick stretch. Afterwards, I stand up to do the same with my legs and arms.

If those really were the so-called “System Values”, then I can see why Charon mentioned it would be difficult to make sense of my values if I had a lot of them. With just the default values and “Blessings” (whose identities are still a mystery) I had spent at least 2 hours of wrangling clouds.

I obtained quite the Skill, didn’t I? — or I suppose it’s an “Ability”. It was difficult, to say the least. Manipulating such odd things in my psyche with “feeling” alone… While I’m not expecting a lot from this Skill, I’ll be a little disappointed if it turns out that it’s completely useless.

Now, to use it.

It didn’t come with any instructions, but I somehow know how it is that I should activate it. Likely, the System had a hand in that. Well, it’s convenient at least. As I finished stretching, I thought of the Skill name for activation: 『Quantitative Menu』

Holding my ears in vain against enough sharp, pinball-like noises to make me cradle my head while cringing, I sit back down as numerous messages open up in front of me. These messages are for numerous “Skills” and “Spells”. There are even Charon-unmentioned “Abilities”.

I wasn’t terribly surprised, as I had expected at least one of those “clouds” to be a Skill/Spell of some sort… But to think I had this many Blessings.

No. That’s wrong, these could be… Mh.

Probably, the reason for this number of notifications is because most of them are “Byproducts”.

Essentially, whatever was connected to the other side of the impossible-to-manipulate lines reaching into my psyche must have moved closer due to my organizing and manipulating… Probably. That’s my best guess after looking at the Messages one by one and clearing them from my sight, anyways.

With this Ability I probably won’t need to go back into my psyche to wrangle more clouds, so I’ll gladly show my appreciation.

*clap clap*

Mh. Now, moving on.

Looking at the actual data provided by 「Quantitative Menu」… I’m an “F”, huh.

Female, it means.

I bring my hands to my chest, but no matter how much I feel, there’s nothing there but justice — is something I wouldn’t think of. I am as flat as a board, though.

Furthermore, my race is 【Zombie】. Judging by the Title I have, I’m a “Newborn” one at that. Well, that should be expected.

Even so, no matter how you look at it this body’s at least 10 years old give or take a couple of years. Perhaps it’s a Racial trait…? Or maybe I’m some kind of Zombie variant, like a “Child Zombie”. I’ll need to consult Charon’s Book about the Zombie Race to be sure.

Hopefully Charon wrote something about them in this Book-stool, otherwise my best guesses are: “Stats gained through Levels”, “Stats gained through doing other things”, “Stats gained by using things (like Potions?)”, and “Stats gained via Equipment” respectively.

The Stat types have all been compounded into 3 Letters, too. For Primary, HP, MP, SP, and DEF… I don’t really need to explain those, right? Hit Points, Mana Points, Stamina Points, and Defence. They’re the most basic of the basics. Satiety relates to Hunger I believe.

For Secondary, from top to bottom they’re: Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, Wisdom, Resistance, Vitality, and Mentality.

For Tertiary, CRM, FTH and LUK, are likely Charm, Faith, and Luck respectively. Charm could also be Charisma, but in games the two are often synonymous, so I digress.

Of course, those are simply guesses based off of gaming knowledge, but I have the odd feeling that my guesses aren’t far off. Even if I am wrong, however, I’ll be able to find out what each Stat does given enough time.

As for the specifics of the “Commands”… Well, they’re quite numerous so I’ll only mention the “Blessings”, which I identified through the System Messages mentioning my “previous life”.

⟨Reading Mastery⟩, ⟨The Choice of the True Dead⟩, and ⟨Oracle’s Eye⟩. There’s also ⟨Strong Soul⟩ which was proclaimed to be a Blessing from Charon himself. It’s the result of that searing pain I felt on his ship, no doubt.

Seeing as they’re likely the most important of the bunch, it wouldn’t be wise to neglect reading them over, now would it?

Don’t know if you will see this, or if it has already been changed: for the Secondary Status Variables chart, I would recommend putting the [total] value next to the [stat] column on the right to make it easier to figure out.

This way, readers can quickly understand the overall value of each stat and don’t need to keep looking back and forth across the rows in the chart unless they are curious about the other variables. Just an idea I had for ease of reading. Anyways, keep up the great work and I am looking forward to see where this story goes!🙂

I meant the left (oops… I blame finals), but now that I’ve caught up the current chapter and read all of the command information… it doesn’t seem like a problem as much. I guess I just needed to get used to your writing style. Keep up the great work!🙂